Gypsy Chief Goliath
It's a Walk in the Mist

The chief of the gypsies releases his first album called it’s a walk in the mist and to celebrate that lets start with some stereotypes. It is recorded in a wagon on pots and pans and other things the chief’s people have stolen during their journeys through the nations, it may of course also be a recorded in a studio by some guys that are considered very influential on the Canadian Stoner rock scene. Perhaps they are, I have no idea as I know nothing about Canadian Stoner, on the other hand I know an ugly artwork when I see one and this album has one of those that’s for sure. So it shows not much promise considering ugly artwork, silly name, only the title is somewhat interesting and do you know what else they say in the promo info? “This could seriously be your favourite band ever” seriously? How the hell do they know what I like to listen to, is this in style close to either Styx, The Birthday Massacre or Ayreon? as far as I know, none of those does Stoner and those are my favourite bands ever (added of course Star One but as that is an Arjen Lucassen thing as well I skipped writing it).

It is not like any of these bands I just mentioned, it is stoner rock with a bit of a southern rock style added to create some flavour. Easily described you can say it is something of a Monster Magnet meets Lynard Skynard kind of thing, it is quite well produced with a clean sound that is also a bit raw and at the same time with a slight hint of redneckness. Impressive I would say about that, the vocals are not they feel as though sung by a half drunken fat gypsy chief sitting in a wagon on his way to some county fair in southern alabama. It is high energy music and it is clearly audible that these guys know what they are doing and that they have a fair bit of experience and a dozen tracks to show for it.

I think that this is a rather good album and the rough style of the album suits the poor voice rather well, many reviews write in high regard to this singer for some reason but to me he sounds more or less like any other stoner rock singer. Speaking of reviews, they seems to be very positive towards this album and that is understandable if you are a fan of stoner rock this will most definitely appeal to you, I am not really a fan of that genre so I am not as enthusiastic but I can acknowledge that it is good but at the same time it is nothing particularly new or groundbreaking.

So if you are a fan of southern rock combined with the stoner rock thing then this will be a treat for you as it holds a high musical standard and all of that. The opening track called Black Samurai is the best one on the album with a cool intro, some harmonica stuff and some cool melodies. That track is the one that stands out for me, the other tracks are not bad either and it is a good album to listen to. I also like to mention the ending track which is a cool nod back in time a sort of song that you could imagine to hear in a murky british pub somewhere around closing time. And with that I have said what needs to be said about this album, it is a fairly good one.

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